


Down under

by duesternis



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: First Meeting, Frottage, Hand Jobs, Jamie hecked up nearly dies and makes a friend, Love At First Bite - Freeform, M/M, Poaching, Sharks, and smut in the third chapter, mature for language and violence, mermaid au, they go kill things together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-21
Updated: 2017-01-22
Packaged: 2018-09-19 02:21:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9413624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/duesternis/pseuds/duesternis
Summary: Jamie, a bronze shark, meets Mako, a great white shark, under peculiar circumstances.They involve a boat, a seahorse, an octopus and missing things.He had no idea they would involve nearly dying too.But Jamie's impulse control had always been shit, so he's not to blame. Right?





	1. Caudality

**Author's Note:**

> this is completely self-indulgent and probably hella inconsistent in characterization and writing.  
> but i wanted to do this, so i did.

His fin cut the stinking water apart and he dimly heard some humans shout, up on the boat.  
Something was dropped in the water right above him and he twisted his burning tail to get away faster. His lungs were still tight with rough air and his hands were shaking.  
He shot deeper, away from the bright sun and the sharp things and the stinking water of the harbor. But he would come back.  
He would come back and make those bastards pay for getting him up on their stinky boat with their shiny things. For promising him things and then stabbing him in the back.  
Literally.

Only when his tail felt as if it were made from jellyfish did he slow. He turned his head and twisted around in the water.  
All alone. A current caressed his sore fins. Something was not right with the caudal. The dorsal was messed up, too, but not as painful.  
With a racing heart he dared a glance at his tail and swallowed. The lower lobe of the caudal fin was almost torn away, hanging on by a shred of flesh. White bone glared at him.  
Jamie cursed, bit his tongue and bend down. With both hands he took the lower lobe and tugged.  
It hurt like fuck.  
He tasted his own blood and let go of his tongue. Tugged again and wondered who was screaming. Another tug and he paused with a snort.  
He was doing the screaming.  
Jamie vowed to kill that human with the sharp, shiny thing and take it for himself.  
Then he tore the useless part of his fin off and screamed himself hoarse.

 

Mako had been resting, leaned up against a cliffside, current rushing past him and sometimes toying with his hair.  
When a blood curdling scream tore through the dark quiet.  
He jerked away from his rock and in the same moment tasted the thick blood in the current.  
It came from higher up.  
He lifted his head and squinted against the far away sun. Turned slowly around and waited.  
There!

Something was drifting in the current, bleeding. Judging shape and size it had to be another shark. Smaller than him and leaner, too.  
Mako took off with a powerful slap of his tail and gently moved against the current, up towards whatever poor thing was bleeding out.  
Maybe it would be dead by the time he got there.  
Well, a man had to eat.  
Mako met the bleeding thing halfway down the current and stopped, arms holding him in place with sure movements.  
It was a shark. A young one at that.  
But none Mako had ever seen before. Its hide was shiny in some places, crusted with blood and old skin in others, old wounds and new scars all over the elegant body. A pale, long face with big eyes that stared at Mako with fear.  
The caudal was ripped up and a slow trickle of blood still spread through the water. The dorsal had a hole punched through it.

„Fuck off.“ The voice was rough and raw and the gills were fluttering faintly.  
Mako could hear the crazed heartbeat in the scrawny chest.  
„You fuck off or I eat you for dinner.“  
„Cunt.“ It bared its scraggly teeth and spat at Mako. There was something shiny in its mouth.  
With great effort it hurled itself out of the current and Mako followed.  
He tilted his head and looked at the other shark. „You‘re gonna be dinner sooner or later, kid.“  
„Fuck off, asswipe. Ain‘t gonna be dinner for some fatso like you.“ And with that the scrawny shark turned around and twisted up towards the warmer waters. Its broken tail brought it forward slowly, long arms doing most of the work with the help of general thrashing around.  
Mako looked up and followed the broken thing with his dark eyes. The weak insults hadn‘t tipped him off, surprisingly.  
Acting on a whim Mako spiralled upwards, following the other shark at some distance.  
The trail of blood lay heavy in the water between them.

 

Jamie cursed and panted and fought for every slap of his tail. He felt like crying and screaming and tearing that fat white shark apart with bare hands.  
He wouldn‘t end up as no dinner, thank you kindly. Not even with a fucked up tail and dropping adrenaline. He only needed to find a hole to hide in and heal.  
Find his group again and they‘d help him.  
They‘d feed him until he was strong enough to help hunt again. Until he had learned to swim a straight line with half a damn caudal.  
Not that he had managed a straight before, but hey. One can dream.  
They would come back for him. They must have heard his screams and smelled his blood.  
Jamie honed in on the cliffs by the coast, where no boats went and where he could lie down and shake in pain.  
His hands were numb and it got darker without the sun setting.

A great shadow dragged over Jamie and he jerked his head up as fast as it would go.  
The fat whitey circled above Jamie, dark eyes trained on him.  
Jamie scowled and tried to hurry up, ready to hide in some hole the fatty would never fit. But his tail wouldn‘t budge one bit any longer and his gills hurt from breathing so hard and his arms were cold and his chest was heavy and he really didn‘t want to end up as dinner and Jamie was so angry with the damn world that he didn‘t know what to do other than charge.  
So he tore through the water with mostly his arms and rammed his head into the belly of the great white, teeth biting down as hard as he could and long fingers grabbing anything he could reach to hold the bastard down.  
Jamie tasted blood and grinned through the mouthful of fat, fingers tearing up skin on muscular forearms.

Which were suddenly gone from his grip and then something grabbed his dorsal fin and tugged on it. A finger poked at the hole in it and Jamie saw black for a moment.  
Another hand grabbed a huge fistful of his hair and tugged on that. Jamie clamped his jaws down, eyes bright again and the hand in his hair let go.  
The one on his dorsal fin stilled for a moment. Fat fingers felt the jagged edge and carefully touched the punch-hole.  
The great white was still circling with Jamie hanging from his belly like some weird little cleaning fella. Jamie gnawed on the fat, tail trailing behind him.  
And then one of those huge hands grabbed Jamie‘s jaw and pressed so hard on it that he had to let go, unless he wanted that messed up too.  
So he pushed off from the thick belly, blood in his mouth and went for the cliffside again.  
A high-pitched giggle tore from his chest and he already tasted triumph on the tip of his tongue.

But a sharp pain in his tail jerked him to a stop and he turned over his shoulder to stare the great white dead in the eye.  
Damn bastard had grabbed the thinnest part of his tail and held on to it. His dark eyes were like the deep drop his group had never let Jamie investigate.  
They made a shiver ripple through his long body, tail twitching in the whitey‘s hand.  
„What the bloody fuck do you want, mate?“

 

Mako grinned and let the tail go. He had checked the missing fin with half a glance and knew that the other shark wouldn‘t get far.  
Not with how exhausted it looked, skin even paler in the sun-tinted water near the coast and hands trembling faintly. Not with how much blood it had given to the sea.  
„I want nothing.“ Mako wiped a hand over the bite on his belly and the other shark twitched in the water, eyes jerking from Mako‘s belly to his face and behind him and then the rounds again.  
„Then fuck off, I sure as hell don‘t want nothing from you.“ It wiped blood from its teeth and slowly made its way to the boulders and cracks rising from the ocean floor to form cliffs. Humans sometimes jumped down from them.

Mako frowned and followed a few feet. „Hey, Scrawny.“  
The other shark lifted a long middle finger in a human gesture that Mako had seen before, but had no idea what it meant. „Sod off.“  
The raw voice sounded weak, had lost its shrill edge.  
There was no sign of the crazed laugh that had spilled from the shark a mere breath away.  
The drooping tail made it look as if it was crawling off to die somewhere in a ditch. The frown on Mako‘s face deepened and he watched the shark lean against one of the rounded boulders.  
A hundred years of saltwater had licked the edges right off.

Mako circled once around the area, making sure no other sharks were close and then came back to the scrawny one.  
Who was looking at its mangled tail with half-closed eyes.  
„I‘m gonna die. Fuck.“ It was talking to itself and Mako came closer, a fresh catch in his hand.  
„Here.“ The dead fish floated upwards and the scrawny one shot a hand out to grab it and gobble it down. Mako took the opportunity to inspect the broken tail and lean body closer.  
The bronzen shine of the skin was dulled in most places, crusty wounds covering it, dried blood breaking away in flakes from time to time.  
Then there were scars all over the tail, some deeper than others. But all looked weird.  
As if it had torn itself open on jagged rocks again and again.  
Close to its belly there was something like a spike set into the pale skin. It looked human-made. The skin around it looked red and raw.

„I‘m Mako.“  
The scrawny one looked at Mako with huge eyes and tilted its head to one side. Its eyes were slightly out of focus and then it slipped down from the boulder and hung dead in the water. The rest of the catch slipped from the limp fingers and floated away.  
„Shit.“ Mako grabbed the slim body and carefully cradled it against his chest. The heart was beating weak and slow in the pale chest and the gills were pumping faintly.  
Some weird instinct was triggered and he tilted the sharp chin back.  
Mako breathed into the half-open mouth and watched the gills flutter stronger. He did it a few more times until he could be sure they would keep working without any help.

Long fingers scratched against his forearm and unfocused eyes blinked meekly.  
„Jamie.“ A crackling cough.  
„Hi, Jamie.“ Mako put the lolling head against his shoulder and supported the trembling tail with his other hand. „I‘ll take you to some help.“  
A weak laugh bubbled against Mako‘s skin. „Ain‘t got no help.“  
Mako looked at the shock of blond hair and frowned softly. Didn‘t the shiny ones normally hang in groups?  
Some with arms, some without, but always together.  
He grunted and cupped the head in one palm. „Me neither.“

 

Mako quickly cut through the warm water, sunlight painting bright spots on his grey back and making it hard to distinguish shapes against the light.  
Jamie had his arms loosely around his neck and breathed faintly against his gills.  
It was uncomfortable, but Mako was glad to know that the scrawny shark was still breathing.  
The closer he got to the labyrinthine reef the louder it got around them. Fish-chatter and the lap of water against the corals a low buzz in his ears.  
Though wherever his great shadow crossed over bumps of coral it quieted to a fearful hum.

Jamie giggled, shaking in Mako‘s grasp.  
„They‘re soooo scared of you, big guy, bet they ain‘t ever bothering you.“  
Mako just patted the bony back, stroking the dorsal fin with a lazy swipe. The jagged edges had stopped bleeding, only the hole still seeping, and for a moment he wondered what the gaunt shark hanging off him had gone through, before ending up in Mako‘s part of town.  
He circled around one of the sunken ships, covered with corals and bright fish.  
They knew that they didn‘t need to fear him, that he only came here to get better and clean.  
Never to feed.

And then small, quicksilver Lúcio was on him out of nowhere. His leafy appendages shimmering in the sun and his face scrunched up with worry.  
„Mako! What‘s up?“ Lúcio‘s eyes darted once over Mako and then focused on scrawny Jamie as soon as he was sure that Mako wasn‘t hurt.  
„Hey.“ Mako grunted and tired to ignore Jamie‘s frantic heartbeat and the way his thin arms tightened around his shoulders. Maybe he had never seen a seahorse with arms before.  
„Who‘s that?“ Jamie breathed against Mako‘s ear and he plucked the boy from his body.  
Jamie complained with a shrill whine and tried to wrap his hurt tail around Mako. Blood wafted around them.  
„Help, I guess.“

Lúcio leaned in, curious as always. „Hi. I‘m Lúcio. Who‘re you?“  
„Ain‘t none of your concern, asswipe, sod off. Don‘t need no help from some squiggly fish or nothing.“ Jamie‘s face was a grimace, his lips drawn back over his sharp teeth, the shiny things in his mouth glinting in the sun.  
„He‘s hurt.“ Lúcio‘s friend piped up from the mouth of one of the ship‘s openings. Her long hair floated in the water around her head and she grinned, pink arms sticking to the corals around her.  
Mako was always kind of uneasy around her. Her eyes were too cold for the easy smiles.  
He growled faintly and ignored Jamie spitting venom in Lúcio‘s direction. It was surprisingly easy to hear past the shrill insults.  
For the first ten seconds.  
Lúcio looked more intrigued than hurt by the whole ordeal. His eyes were bright and his hands raised in a calming gesture.  
„I don‘t wanna hurt you, I just want to take a look, if you got something that needs looking at. I want to help.“

Mako took Jamie‘s torso in one hand and turned him on his back to make him shut up. Pale belly up to the sun and a hand on his chest made Jamie quiet down immediately. He blinked up at Mako with wide eyes and breathed through an open mouth, gills moving gently along with it.  
He looked completely at peace with being man-handled and vulnerable. Even though he was hurt all over.  
„His caudal is wrecked, dorsal punched through. And he‘s got something stuck in his side, all crusty everywhere and ripped up.“  
Lúcio carefully moved closer and his friend smacked her lips, crawling a bit further out of her hole.  
Fish-chatter was picking up again around them and Mako stroked the lighter stripe on the side of Jamie‘s crusty tail. A giggle bubbled out of his lean chest and he blinked slowly. Mako smiled tightly at him.

And held him down when Lúcio grabbed the tip of his tail to look closer at the torn caudal fin.  
All quiet from before was forgotten.

„Lemme go, fuckturd! I‘ll kill you if you don‘t let go, I‘ll bloody rip your head off and have your thingies for lunch!“ Jamie thrashed in Mako‘s grip and pointed at Lúcio‘s green appendages moving in the water.  
Lúcio‘s friend was out of her hole and looking furious now. Lúcio looked at her and shook his head, gently stroking Jamie‘s tail and hushing him. Mako had thrown worse threats at him when the small seahorse had gotten a harpoon out of his back.  
Now his gentle hands moved over Jamie‘s tail and sides until he found what Mako had talked about.

„It feels like a spearhead. Someone must have tried to poach him.“ Lúcio looked at Mako and they both frowned. Lúcio‘s friend looked uncaring at Jamie‘s twisting form.  
She seemed to think him disgusting, with his pale skin and dirty tail.  
He didn't find himself agreeing.  
Lúcio leaned closer to Mako, Jamie moving between them. „The crusted parts seem to have come from some human things, too. And the hole in his dorsal is too clean to come from teeth.“  
Mako huffed heavily and strengthened his grip on Jamie‘s skin. What had the scrawny shark done to make the humans hurt him like that?  
„Hey, hey, shark-boy.“ Lúcio smiled at Jamie‘s spitting face and gently petted his hair. Mako held Jamie‘s mouth closed with a hand on his jaw.  
„I‘ll get that thing out and then we‘ll do something for the rest of you, okay?“ Jamie shook his head violently and growled, gills fluttering panicked.  
Mako rubbed a thumb over his cheek and tried to calm the scrawny shark with soft touches.

He didn‘t want Jamie to die from whatever had happened to him.  
He wanted to know why the scrawny shark had come down to Mako, away from the light and the warmth his group liked.  
Why his group was gone. What had happened. What the humans had wanted from him.  
How his tail looked without blood and crusts on it.  
Mako wanted to know and he would keep this shark alive to get what he wanted.  
So he held Jamie carefully but unforgiving while Lúcio cut around the spearhead to get it out.

Blood came up from the cuts. It smelled bad, infected and old. Jamie screamed, voice already hoarse and close to tearing.  
Mako kept him as still as possible and Lúcio tugged the spearhead out of the shark, pressing lightly on the raw skin, to make the infected blood come out quicker.  
Jamie screamed murder at him and Mako was sure he tasted more salt than normal in the water.  
Maybe tears.  
„Okay. Number one, done.“ Lúcio shook his hands out and grabbed Jamie‘s tail again to do something to his caudal.

Mako didn‘t want to look, so he pressed Jamie‘s head against his chest and rested his chin in the tuft of hair. Jamie clawed at his broad back, nails tearing skin and screams muffled against Mako‘s chest.  
Whatever Lúcio did, it seemed to take forever.  
And when he was done with the caudal Lúcio poked around the dorsal.  
Some time in even his friend crawled back into her hole, watching out of the semi-darkness of the shipwreck. Her eyes sharp and small.  
Mako growled at her and she grinned, crawling deeper into the ship.  
A moment later Jamie stopped screaming and Lúcio popped up in Mako‘s field of vision.

„I shut the caudal for now and stilled the bleeding on the dorsal. But he needs plenty of rest for it all to heal, good food and I‘m not sure he can ever swim as good as before again.“ An apologetic shrug and Lúcio ran a hand through his hair.  
Mako nodded and patted Jamie‘s trembling shoulder.  
„I‘ll keep an eye on him.“ Jamie giggled faintly in Mako's grasp and his tail twitched. „Thanks, Lúcio.“  
„Anytime, big guy.“  
„Oi, I call him that.“ Jamie croaked and coughed, gills weak again.  
Lúcio laughed brightly and waved as Mako took off, Jamie hanging on him like seaweed.  
„Take care!“

Mako lifted a hand and shifted Jamie in his grasp.  
He knew just the spot to hide his newest trinket.

The spearhead he had grabbed cut faintly into his fist and Mako grinned.


	2. Causality

Jamie woke with a start and jerked his head around.  
He was stretched out over a carpet of seaweed, soft against his belly and tail. High over his body.  
„Wha‘?“  
Tired he rubbed his eyes and pushed himself up into the water. He was sore as fuck and hungry as hell.  
He looked over his shoulder at his caudal and found the wound stitched up. The crusty skin parts on his tail were almost gone, soft new skin beneath it that tingled in the warm water.  
„What the everloving fuck.“ Jamie poked one of the new patches and was surprised with how little everything hurt. Even his side was mostly fine. And his dorsal only stung faintly.  
He rubbed his eyes again and looked around once more.

No one around, as far as he could see. One of those crusty red pinchers clambered over a rock and Jamie grabbed him, breaking the hard shell with his teeth, sucking soft flesh right out of it.  
Then he proceeded to play with the pinchers, picking small rocks and shells up, giggling to himself.  
The seaweed moved in the water and something approached Jamie. He dropped back into the long carpet and carefully eyed the perimetre.  
„Jamie?“ Harsh, deep voice. Big shadow. Large, white belly. Grey hair and huge hands.  
Mako, right?  
„Yeah?“  
A grunt from the great white and then he dipped down into the seaweed, right next to Jamie. „Breakfast, idiot.“

„Ain‘t no idiot, cunthead.“ Jamie grabbed the dead fish from Mako‘s large hands and munched down on the tender belly with vigor. The pinchers lay forgotten next to him.  
Jamie opened his full mouth and pointed at everything around them at the same time. „Where‘s this?“  
„Old shipyard beyond the harbor. The seaweed‘s good for healing.“ Mako ran a huge hand through the long plants and plucked one out. „Eat it.“  
Jamie scrunched his face up.  
He‘d rather take a bite from a human before he ate green things. „Eeew. Eat it yourself, if it‘s so good.“  
Mako chuckled deep in his large chest (everything was large about the fucker, really) and stuffed the green thing in the open belly of Jamie‘s fish.

„Are you mental? Take it out!“ Jamie shook the fish, but only some of the sweet innards got out. He sucked them in with a quick mouth and eyed Mako warily.  
The great white was staring at his fish, as if he was going to steal it, so Jamie quickly shoved most of it down his throat, swallowing in huge gulps.  
Only when it all was gone did he remember the green stuff and howled. Clawed at his belly and thrashed around in the water. „You‘re killing me with greens and then you‘ll eat me! Traitor!“  
Mako laughed, face wrinkled with joy and rubbed a hand over Jamie‘s stomach. „Awww, poor Jamie.“  
Who arched up into the tender touch and made a purring noise in the back of his throat that caught both of them unawares.  
„What was that?“ Jamie stared at Mako wide-eyed and then at his own belly.  
Mako shrugged and did it again. Same result. „I have no idea. Never happened before?“

Jamie hissed, teeth bared. „Must be your greens killing me already.“  
A huge frown on a huge face. „Bullshit.“  
„No bullshit. Green shit.“ Jamie pointed at the seaweeds. „I saw a turtle eat something green and it died.“  
„Where?“ Mako took a bite out of his own fish and licked blood from his chin. It was a strong chin. Strong like his hands and the slap of his tail.  
„Harbor.“ Jamie fiddled with his pelvic fins and stroked his new skin again.  
Tingly-tingly.  
„Hey, you got the sharp thing that Squiggly cut out of me?“  
Mako nodded and finished his fish. Then he ate one of the green things and grinned at Jamie. Who gagged and stuck out his tongue.  
„Where‘s it?“

„Safe.“  
„It‘s mine. I want it.“ Jamie scrunched his face up, eyes small and bright and dangerous. Teeth bared. The golden bits hopefully glinting in the murky light.  
Mako looked Jamie straight in the face and his eyes got small too. Dark and dangerous, that drop again. He seemed to grow in size, dwarfing Jamie all of a sudden, teeth sharp and thousandfold and hands strong, crushing, huge.  
„I got it now. You want it back, you need to take it.“ His voice shook the water around them and Jamie felt it vibrate right to his bones.  
It was awesome.  
It made him laugh.  
He loved it.  
A whoop. „Awesome, mate! Do that again!“  
He wiggled closer, arms reaching for Mako‘s pelvic fins to draw himself in further. Mako jerked his tail out of reach and Jamie ended up pressed against his belly. Pulled in by the sudden movement in the still waters.

He felt Mako vibrate with a growl right against him and his mouth fell open. He couldn‘t see straight anymore and his tail was tingling, chest moving with that purr again.  
Suddenly the growl stopped and two large hands plucked Jamie off of Mako‘s belly.  
„Oi!“ He protested and grabbed the scratched up forearms to get back up against that warm skin. Mako smelled great.  
Blood and salt and greens and clean water. No crusty bits, no trash. No human scents clinging to his skin.

Wait. Human scents.

Jamie‘s hands flew to his hips and he howled. Gnarled and gnashed his teeth, scratched his tail and slapped the hurt side against the sand. Screeched at Mako and hit his arm.  
„My pouch! Where‘s my stuff?“ His eyes pinpointed on Mako after swiping the area and he growled, teeth bared again.  
Mako just lifted an eyebrow and shrugged. „Had no pouch when I saw you first.“  
„Liar!“ Jamie hissed and rammed his head against Mako‘s shoulder, using him as leverage to push up into the water, free from the green carpet of soft seaweed.  
A call from Mako went ignored and Jamie tried to recognize the coastline.  
Old shipyard, near the harbor.  
A few seconds of frantic paddling and painful tugs in his tail later Jamie knew which way to go to the harbor.

The fucking humans with their stupid boat must have taken his pouch. If even one bit was missing he would rip them all to shreds. That was his stuff in the pouch.  
His!  
Collected over years of careful searching. It had shiny things and sharp things and colourful things that weren‘t alive. It held everything he had.  
It was everything he had, now that his group was gone and he couldn‘t swim well and the great white bastard following him was trying to poison him, so he could eat Jamie‘s scrawny ass for breakfast.  
Jamie hoped he would choke on a bone. Or get so fat he exploded.

 

After only a small portion of the way, spent gnarling and muttering, Jamie was already out of breath. His arms were tired and his tail hurt.  
The tender new skin pulled tight with every move and his gills were closing too fast to really get enough air into his lungs.  
And Mako was still following him, putting Jamie really on edge with his intimidating way of moving that big body of his. Jamie was too weak and hurt to protect himself, he knew.  
But if driven into a corner he would thrash and bite and kill.  
He clung to that hope and swam on.

Too focused to notice a tiger shark creeping up on him until it was too late. Jaws wide open and tail slapping wildly, propelling the huge body at Jamie.  
He squealed and tried to evade, but his fucking broken caudal decided to act up and make him freeze up in pain.  
Jamie blinked at the throat of the tiger shark and felt a laugh bubble out of his chest. So this was how he was going to die.  
Alone, broken and without his bloody stuff.  
What a bummer.  
The jaws where about to close around Jamie‘s chest, when suddenly the tiger was gone and Mako circled Jamie possessively.

Big chest huffing and arms stretched out, hands ready to tear and maim. Mouth open, teeth sharp in it and tail slicing the water determined. Like knives on skin.  
Jamie felt the water around himself vibrate with Mako‘s growls. It went straight to his bones again, opening his throat around that purr.  
The tiger was circling around Mako‘s circles, trying to ascertain if the scrawny breakfast was worth a fight.  
It seemed to think that Jamie was worth at least another try.  
A head-on charge made Mako grind out a sharp laugh, arms wide open to grab the tiger as soon as possible.  
He hung directly in front of Jamie, tall caudal fin (whole and perfect and so stunning) whipping water around his slender body.  
From behind Mako looked streamlined and deadly, huge, dangerous, gorgeous.

Jamie shivered under the growls that still spilled, getting louder the closer the tiger came.  
And then Mako shot forward with a yell, grabbed the still only half-opened snout of the tiger and forced it closed. Slapped his huge tail against the side of the tiger‘s head and grunted with effort.  
The tiger wiggled and thrashed, growling and snarling and trying to reach Mako with his tail. It was futile.  
Jamie whooped and cheered. „Come on, big guy! Give it to the ugly drongo!“  
Mako grunted again and Jamie saw his arms slip slightly. The tiger noticed too and threw all his strength into another wriggle.  
„Oi! Not on my watch, asswipe.“ Jamie scowled, shrill giggle on his lips and made his way forward as quick as he could.  
„Stay back!“ Mako‘s voice made the water ripple and Jamie purred again, cheeks hot and hands tingly.

„Just giving you a tiny hand, mate.“ A sharp laugh from Jamie. „Get it? Tiny hand, ‘cause my hands are tiny in comparison to yours. But that‘s just because you‘re such a freakishly large guy, Mako, my mate.“  
He made a weak half circle to evade the slapping of Mako‘s tail and sidled about on the tiger‘s left.  
Mako‘s dark eyes focused on Jamie and the tiger sniffed the water. Something was bleeding again. What a bother that was.  
„Back off.“  
„Yeh, yeh, mate.“ Jamie wriggled his eyebrows, laughed and shoved his left arm into the gills of the tiger.  
As deep as it would go.

Then he grabbed hold of whatever slippery thing he could find and tugged as hard as he could. Which wasn‘t that hard at the moment, sadly.  
But the tiger stilled for a moment and then renewed his efforts, his blood shrouding them in a reddish hue and his muscles already spasming.  
Jamie dug in again and grabbed the next thing.  
Mako held the tiger as best as he could and chuckled when Jamie stuck both arms into the dying shark.  
„Man, this will be a fucking feast.“ Jamie grinned at Mako‘s strong, thick face and got a smile back. Sharp teeth and wide lips and he purred deep in his chest, wanting for those teeth to graze his skin.

„Wait, what?“

Jamie tore a large chunk of something out of the tiger shark, it spasmed, shook, lost a bunch of blood all of a sudden and went limp in Mako‘s unrelenting grasp.  
„What?“ Mako looked at him with a frown and let the shark go.  
Jamie shrugged exaggerated and punched Mako in the shoulder, leaving a bloody spot there. „I don‘t even. But anywho, think we make a great team, eh?“  
Mako rolled his eyes and gave Jamie‘s outstretched fist a soft bump. „I guess.“

Jamie giggled and prodded the dead shark with a finger. His caudal was pulsing with pain. Probably had torn. But the tiger‘s blood masked it well.  
„Now, where the hell were you going, Jamie?“  
„Harbor.“ He tried to remember why and scratched at the dead belly. Bit into it and chewed on the tough skin, until sweet blood and flesh peeked out.  
„Why?“ Mako gently pushed a growling Jamie away and started tearing big chunks of meat off the shark. Jamie gobbled them down and demanded more with every bite.  
„To get my stuff.“ He swallowed and his eyes grew comically large. He just knew it. „My stuff! No time to hang around, mate, what‘re you doing? Chop-chop! We need to get going! Before they sell my stuff!“  
Jamie grabbed Mako‘s dorsal and tugged. The bastard didn‘t budge one bit. Only looked at Jamie over his shoulder and lifted a brow.  
„We?“

„Yeah! We! Hard of hearing or what, mate?“ Jamie tugged again. „Big guy, come on! I can‘t do it alone! Not with me all fucked up still! I need someone to hold them fuckers down when I tear them apart, can‘t do it all alone with hurts and sores. And you‘re my mate and we‘re a great team and you‘re rough-tough banging on doors and taking them down and wrestling with sharks and shit and all imposing and big and grumpy and that really works for me and my smarts and your strengths make us like this undefeatable team and we really need to get going. So move your thick hide or I‘ll bite a hole in you!“  
Jamie snapped his teeth to enhance his threat and growled, lithe body pressed against Mako‘s side and hands roaming all over his big body to grab something and tug.  
Mako chuckled and reached a big hand around Jamie‘s torso, keeping him in place. The rumbling in his chest made Jamie shiver again.  
It was becoming worrying. But there was that answering purr and a tingling in his tail and Jamie tried to get even closer.

„So. We a team now, scrawny?“  
Jamie nodded enthusiastic and muttered a pitching hiss of „Yes, yes, yes“ against Mako‘s gills.  
The great white just shook his head, had a chunk of tiger shark for himself and took off towards the harbor, Jamie once more hanging on him.  
Whooping and hollering.

 

Mako slowed down as soon as there were boats cruising above, sunlight speckling the water and the stink of humans all over the sea.  
Jamie was wriggling and muttering, talking to himself and giggling from time to time. It was adorable as much as unnerving.  
„Hey.“ Mako touched his hip and was rewarded with one of those sweet purrs making his skin tingle. He smiled. „Stop it and listen, kid.“  
„Ain‘t no kid and ain‘t doing anything, mate.“ Jamie perched up on Mako‘s shoulder. Pulled himself up until he was basically sitting on Mako‘s back.

And Mako let him.  
„You know the boat they took you on?“  
Jamie made a noise on his back and poked the tips of Mako‘s dorsal fins. First the second one and then the larger one.  
„The keel was rusty and the propeller leaked oil. Smelled of blood and those human things. The colourful ones.“  
Mako had no idea what Jamie meant with the last bit, but the rusty, old boats were farther down the beach.  
So he dipped as deep as he could, belly almost touching the warm sand and brought them to the worst part of the harbor.  
Where the water was brackish and brown, hard to breathe, and everything stunk like humans.  
Trash littered the bed of the sea and the harbor walls were dark with grime.  
Mako‘s skin crawled and Jamie huffed a nervous laugh up on his back.

„Mate, try that one there.“  
A long finger pointed at a rusty keel, red paint hanging in stripes from the metal.  
Mako grunted and moved towards it, careful to keep as deep as he could.  
There were nicer things than humans shooting harpoons at his back, just because they had seen his fin part water.  
Jamie was tittering against his shoulder, breath hot on Mako‘s skin.   
„You alright?“  
„Right as rain.“ Another giggle. And Jamie‘s long fingers started to dance over Mako‘s neck, his shoulders, his back, down his sides and over his arms.  
„Stop.“ Mako growled over his shoulder and the tickling movements subsided to Jamie having his hands on Mako‘s skin.

A warm patch of sun dragged over them. The boat was only a hundred feet away.  
„Why did they take you in the first place?“ Mako tried to ask as gently as he could.  
Jamie giggled and moved. Mako guessed he had shrugged.  
„No idea. They promised to show me some shiny stuff, give it to me for my collection and then next thing I know is they try to kill me with their sharp things.“  
Mako grunted and sped up slightly. Those humans wouldn‘t get to another shark again.

They came to a halt directly beneath the rusting boat and Jamie gently tapped the keel and the crumbling patches around it.  
„Did you know that rust is like a disease? One part infected and boom!“ He mimicked something being blown apart with his hands, eyes bright and huge and orange in the shadows. „Everything breaks apart.“  
Mako grinned, getting was Jamie was on about. „Let‘s see for ourselves.“  
Jamie tossed his head back, baring his long, pale throat and laughed. Mako joined in.  
After a few moments Jamie stopped laughing abruptly and formed two lean fists.  
His knuckles were stark under the skin and Mako stroked them carefully.  
They looked fragile.

„May I have the honors?“  
„All yours, mate.“ The big eyes trained on Mako were slightly out of focus again and through the dirty water Mako smelled something sweet and enticing. It came from Jamie.  
He grinned and punched the hull of the boat with all his strength. It wobbled, the metal creaking.  
But it still held strong.  
„Awww. Try again, Mako, my mate.“ Jamie stuck out his lower lip and purred softly.  
Mako tightened his fists and punched again.

A louder creak.  
The metal wouldn‘t hold out much longer. He could already almost taste the human blood on the tip of his tongue.  
Humans tasted like shit, but their blood was sweet and thick.  
Mako grunted and punched the metal again, feeling it dent and crack under his fist.  
Jamie whooped and punched Mako‘s shoulder again.  
„Just a little bit more, my mate and we‘ll have them down here. You grab them then and I‘ll skin them alive.“  
That crazy laugh bubbled up again and Mako had to grin at himself.  
What was it with him and the totally mental, scrawny, shiny shark that made him want to please the kid to no end?  
On the next punch Mako broke through. Now it was his turn to whoop.

Jamie slammed his long hands on Mako‘s shoulder and hissed into his ear. „Now tear it up.“  
And with a low growl Mako did just that.  
He tore a hole into the hull, big enough to fit his shoulders through and watch the water rise inside the boat.  
There were human shouts up on deck and one floor above Mako‘s head. They must have heard something happening under deck.  
Jamie tugged on Mako‘s pelvic fins and tried to slither up into the boat. „I‘ll kill them all, yank them apart and suck the marrow from their puny bones, Mako. I‘ll have them float up on the sea and then I‘ll jump at them and drag them down again. I‘ll let them catch their breath up there and then I‘ll drown them slowly. I‘ll tear their legs off.“  
Mako huffed and let Jamie into the belly of the boat, one hand around his tail. „Don‘t go far now. Not when they still have a upper hand on their boat.“

And just as Jamie nodded and Mako let go, a hatch flew open and two humans with harpoons stood in the rising water.  
Up to their hips and rising quick.  
Jamie howled in delight and wiggled deeper into the sinking ship. He couldn‘t quite swim yet, but he was fast on his scrawny arms and out of Mako‘s reach in a matter of seconds.  
„Jamie!“ Mako growled, the humans raised their harpoons with angry faces and Jamie just laughed. His shoulders were set and Mako watched the slap of his tail with a tight heart.  
Under water two humans with harpoons were no threat, even to a hurt shark, but here, where they could still breathe and Jamie had to dip his head to get air and where he was slower than normal, Mako wasn‘t sure.  
He tore at the rusty metal to widen the hole.  
Maybe to sink the ship quicker, maybe to get to Jamie‘s side.

 

„Good day, mates. Long time no see.“ Jamie hissed at the humans and they staggered back, water an inch above their hips now.  
For a very short moment he wondered how he looked for them. Eyes burning, teeth bared, hands like claws and tail stretching behind him.  
If he was a monster for them.  
Something out of a nightmare.  
But the moment passed and one of the guys shouted back through the hatch they had crawled out of on their weird walking things.  
„Hey! We got fish trashing the boat!“  
„Shoot them the fuck dead and then get back here! We can forget the bloody ship.“  
Jamie knew that second voice. It was the bastard that had cut his caudal fin.

He giggled and took a mouthful of water. „Oh, no one‘s leaving, mates.“ He twisted to look back at Mako who was tearing at the rim of the hole.  
„Mate, try getting up the side for me, will you?“ He grinned with sparkling teeth and Mako grunted.  
Jamie would love to see Mako breach sometime, but he couldn't leave here again.  
No way to turn around in the shallow water.  
„Don‘t do anything stupid.“ And with that Mako dropped back into the murky water filling the boat from below.  
„I‘d never.“ Jamie cackled and dragged himself forward another foot. The water was rising fast now and the humans looked uneasy.

The younger one made to climb back through the hatch and Jamie finally had enough water under his belly to use what was left of his tail.  
One quick slap and he was on them.  
One quick twist and one had a broken leg and no harpoon. He screamed and Jamie poked him with the harpoon.  
The other one was screaming something up the stairs and Jamie stabbed him with the sharp end.  
„Shut up. I hate it when you talk.“  
And then there were screams from the deck. Jamie shoved the humans apart and leaned out of the hatch.  
„Mako, my mate! Don‘t forget my pouch! And leave me the human with the funny hat! I need to skin him.“ He giggled happily away and kept the broken-leg-human under water with the weight of his tail.

The stabbed-with-the-sharp-end-human was crying and Jamie stabbed him again. „Be quiet, or I‘ll skin you too, you disgusting cunt.“  
The boat tilted under them and Jamie whooped with laughter. „Oh, come on! This isn‘t going fast enough!“  
There was a loud splash right next to the boat and Jamie tapped the metal hull.  
Mako tapped back on the other side. Then his head poked through the hole in the ship and Jamie grinned at him. „Taking a breather, eh?“  
„Yeah. And I found your stuff.“ Mako held his arm out of the hole and Jamie squealed, propelled himself forward with his arms and grabbed hold of Mako‘s face.  
„Thanks, mate!“ He pressed a kiss square on Mako‘s lips and grabbed his pouch from the big hands. „Awww, the belt is torn, shucks.“

He wrapped it around his hips nonetheless and tied the frayed ends in a knot. „Ta-daah! As good as new! I need to show you my stuff later, when the killing‘s done. I bet you‘ll like it.“  
Jamie grinned at Mako again and was met with a stare that was nothing other than a predator sizing up prey.  
„Oi, mate? Thought we were past that state in our partnership...“ Jamie chuckled and petted Mako‘s fluffy head. „Or are you angry with me?“  
He checked over his shoulder and was happy to see the two humans lying there, dead. But no threat that Mako needed to stare at. So he really was looking at Jamie.  
„Oi?“

Mako grunted and grabbed Jamie‘s chin with one hand, the other one engulfed his left arm and tugged him down, through the hole.  
Back into the warm, brown water.  
And then Mako was kissing Jamie and Jamie felt his gills fluttering and his throat widening with that purr again.  
Sharp teeth grazed his lips and he shivered. Clawed at Mako‘s shoulders and bit at his tongue.  
He was purring and tingling all over and Mako vibrated against him, hands so big they covered Jamie completely. There was no way he would ever stop doing this.  
A wave hit them and they both looked at the ship sinking in the dirty water.

„Oooopsie. I forgot that was still happening.“ He laughed and leaned his chin against Mako‘s shoulder. „Did you safe me the guy with the hat?“  
„I did.“ Mako‘s cheeks were flushed and he looked at Jamie with a fondness that made Jamie hot all over.  
„That‘s so sweet of you.“

And the great white shark looked down in embarassment and shook his big head. „Nah.“  
„Oh, are you shy, Mako?“ Jamie dragged a teasing finger over Mako‘s round shoulder and watched his gills flutter for a moment. Then he tittered again and pushed off.

„I‘ll go skin him. You wanna watch?“  
Mako looked up at Jamie and nodded. „You lead the way.“

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i apologize to all tiger sharks out there. i love you, you're awesome.  
> sorry for killing one of you.
> 
> also i made all of the purring and growling up. i have no idea if sharks actually do that.  
> sorry, shark-experts reading this. i was lazy.


	3. Seaweed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i read a bit about shark copulation, decided that insertive would be weird and probably gross to write, so i went with frottage and handjobs.
> 
> yay for claspers. (I want to apologize to all shark-experts again)  
> sorry that this is so short. i was rly tired last night when i wrote this.

Jamie was sleeping atop of Mako and he was purring in his sleep.  
Mako was lying on his belly and sighed into the thick carpet of seaweed. It was taxing, unnerving and completely and utterly overwhelming to have Jamie purring against his skin for what must have been half an hour already.

And then the scrawny bastard had the gall to start gnawing on Mako‘s shoulder.  
Softly, playfully.  
Love bites.  
Long fingers trailed Mako‘s arms, tickling old scars faintly and he had enough.  
He turned around, Jamie hanging in the water for a moment and then drifting down on Mako‘s belly.

„Wha‘?“ Jamie blinked, stretched long on Mako and yawned, teeth sharp and gold shiny.  
„You‘re doing it again.“  
Jamie blinked some more, wiped his mouth on his arm and slapped his tail through the water. „Oh. Sorry.“  
A sheepish grin and Mako groaned.  
He could feel his claspers twitch and pulse against the smooth underside of Jamie‘s tail.  
„I don‘t believe you.“  
Jamie chuckled and gently twisted Mako‘s nipples in his hands. „Why‘s that?“  
„You‘ve been chewing on me in your sleep.“ He sounded a bit breathless, even to himself.  
„Wasn‘t sleeping, mate.“ Jamie pressed a kiss to the top of Mako‘s belly and purred when a large hand covered his lower back, just under his dorsal.

The scrawny bastard had a thing for Mako‘s hands. Made a lot of things easier, in the end.  
Mako gripped him a bit tigher and rolled them around, so that Jamie was lying on his back in the curling seaweed. He blinked up at Mako with wide eyes and an open mouth.  
His gills were rosy and moved softly, almost dreamlike.  
„Still the cutest like that.“ Mako chuckled and licked between Jamie‘s sharp teeth. Jamie moaned in answer and weakly grabbed for Mako‘s shoulders.  
„Unfair.“ Breathy and soft against Mako‘s gills. It made his claspers twitch again.

„You‘re one to talk, kid.“  
„Don‘t always call me that, I hate it. I‘m no kid no more.“ Jamie bared his teeth and hissed. There was no venom behind it.  
Mako gave Jamie‘s cheek a pat and squeezed his other hand between them, reaching down for Jamie‘s pelvic fins. „Sure, kid.“  
He gently ran a thumb between the fins and along the claspers. Jamie‘s huge eyes lost almost all their colour to the black of his expanding pupils and he purred Mako‘s name.  
Mako groaned and nuzzled Jamie‘s soft hair.

With some maneuvering and gentle nips and bites along Jamie‘s collarbones Mako had them aligned, claspers pressed up against each other, skin sensitive and hot.  
They were both trembling, panting, moaning against shoulders and gills.  
Jamie‘s hands were claws on Mako‘s shoulders, his tail thrashing weakly into the sand under them. He couldn‘t move well, lying on his back and with Mako on top of him.  
One word and Mako would roll off, though, pinky-promise that they both kept to with fervor.  
Mako had his hands left and right of Jamie‘s shoulders and was slowly rutting up against him. His belly rubbed against Jamie‘s chest, drawing moan after moan from his throat.

„Mako.“ Jamie was whining, hands scrabbling for more purchase, head thrown back and gills fluttering.  
„You look so gorgeous like this, Jamie.“ Mako trailed a hand over his shivering flank. „So shiny and good. So sweet.“  
Huge orange eyes met his as their foreheads connected. Jamie panted and managed to get a hand on Mako‘s cheek on the second attempt.  
„Love you, mate. Love you so much, I can‘t even say.“ And with a long, loud purr Jamie spilled a cloud of semen into the water between them.

Mako‘s nostrils flared, his mouth opened and he got as much of the scent into his lungs as was possible.  
His eyes shut and he groaned against Jamie‘s trembling lips.  
„I love you too, Jamie.“  
Jamie discharged again and Mako sobbed drily before making the water murky with his own semen.  
A weak whoop from Jamie and they both laughed.

Mako rolled off his partner and Jamie shot into the water, snapping his teeth at the semen still drifting around them.  
„You smell so nice, mate, I could do this all day long.“ Jamie grinned at Mako with bright eyes and the gold in his mouth was shiny like his skin.  
Mako grinned back, his dark eyes the deepest thing Jamie had ever seen, and shrugged.

„I‘d probably let you get away with it, if you purred all the while.“  
Jamie sidled up against Mako‘s flank and licked his lips.

„That can be arranged, Mako, my mate.“


End file.
